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In 2020, Maj. Walter Haynes wrote “Will the Military Become Just Another Politicized Institution?” where he argued the importance of civic education and its role in troop cohesion. In the wake of continued questions over the role of the military in civil society and declining public trust, we invited Maj. Haynes to reflect back on his article.Read more below:Image: U.S. Air Force (Photo by Staff Sgt. James L. Miller)In your 2020 article, “Will the Military Become Just Another Politicized Institution?” you argue that military leaders should educate their ranks about civil issues.  What are the downsides, if any, to institutionalizing civic education in the military?I anticipate two potential downsides. First, some commanders will misunderstand civic education to mean political education. The U.S. military is not the People’s Liberation Army, and we do not have political commissars. Competing interpretations of what civic education entails would be actively harmful to morale and cohesion.The second risk is that we will make a mess of it, and civic education goes the route of annual cyber awareness or insider threat training: a tedious online series of tests and bad voiceovers, or an even more tedious slide show presented by the unit’s additional duty civil education officer.In my opinion, clear guidance will mitigate those two risks.Since the time your original article was published, public trust and favorability of the military have decreased to the lowest percentage in two decades. Should the military take steps to remedy this image? If so, what are those steps and how much does public trust affect the institution? Public trust is vitally important for the health of the institution, since we need around 150,000 Americans to volunteer every year. Equally important is that society view the military as trustworthy and apolitical, so that even when we are ordered to go places and do things